Doula

What is a Doula?

The word, "doula," comes from the Greek word for the most important female slave or servant in an ancient Greek household. The word has come to refer to a woman experienced in childbirth who provides continuous physical, emotional, and informational support to the mother before, during and just after childbirth.

A doula

• Recognizes birth as a key life experience that the mother will remember all her life.
• Understands the physiology of birth and the emotional needs of a woman in labor.
• Assists the woman and her partner in preparing for and carrying out their plans for the birth.
• Stays by the side of the laboring woman throughout the entire labor.
• Provides emotional support, physical comfort measures, an objective viewpoint and assistance to the woman in getting the information she needs to make good decisions.
• Facilitates communication between the laboring woman, her partner and clinical careproviders.
• Perceives her role as one who nutures and protects the woman's memory of her birth experience.